Event Ideas & Design

Five Tactics for Successful Event Planning

Event planning is not rocket science, but it requires an acute organisation and constant attention to detail. If everything goes off without a hitch, it often goes without notice, but if something goes awry, it’s a public display of failure.

1. Start Early: There is no such thing as having too much time to plan an event. For large-scale events, start planning four to five months in advance. For smaller events, one to two months is reasonable. Try to finalise all major contracts (venue and vendors) a full month before the event date.

2. Negotiate with Vendors: Everything is negotiable – even when they tell you it’s not. Before a conversation with a vendor, make a list of everything you need from them, determine your budget and then give them a number that is 5 – 10% lower. Vendors are up against dozens of competitors and will almost always give you a discount to win your business.

3. Make it Social: Events are a great way to harness your client’s social media presence. Leave a sign-in sheet for guests’ twitter handles. Create a custom hashtag for the event and encourage attendees to tweet about it. Post pictures of the event on the company blog or Facebook page and allow guests to tag themselves.

4. Create an Event Bible: You can plan for months and months, but the day-of will almost always be hectic. Put together a simple binder with all of your vendor contracts, extra copies of the floor plan, and a cheat sheet of contact information for easy reference.

5. Have a Plan B for EVERYTHING: Something will be late, something won’t arrive at all, and something will most certainly go very, very wrong. Anticipate which aspects will more significantly affect your event and create backup plans for each.